Bitcoin is still bad

So it’s been a while since I last purchased something using Bitcoin
and I wanted to see if the process had become any less painful today. I
decided that I was going to purchase a $10 item at a shop that accepted
Bitcoin.

I head on over to my Coinbase
account and purchase $10 of Bitcoin. Due to fees the amount I actually
got was only worth $8. Okay, I buy some more to make it $10, then I try
to send the money to the address I was given by the shop. Turns out that
Coinbase doesn’t actually let you send Bitcoin to non-Coinbase users
anymore unless you wait 12 days after you purchase it. Even if I could
send the money, the estimated fee was over $3 (30% of the transaction).

I ended up paying with PayPal and have asked Coinbase for a refund on my Bitcoin purchases.

By Kyle Piira

I'm a computer science student at the University of Massachusetts and the founder of the Hoxly Corporation.